


Next

by RoyEdIsMyAesthetic



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Bathrooms, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Morning After, Wine, royed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 04:32:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10529013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyEdIsMyAesthetic/pseuds/RoyEdIsMyAesthetic
Summary: "You sometimes… you sometimes get stuck in your own little world in the middle of nowhere,” Roy whispered with eyes cast downward. “That isn't a bad thing- it happens to everyone. You have all those wheels turning…”(Intended to accompany the song 'swell - im sorry (feat. shiloh'))





	

"I'm sleeping with my boss," Edward Elric stated in a quiet, sleepy voice. He then repeated the phrase, as if he didn't quite believe it himself. "I am... I am _sleeping…_ with my boss."

  
From the partly open window above flowed in the sound of cars whizzing past, police sirens screaming, the screeching of buses coming to a stop and their doors hissing open, people shouting, and taxi cab horns blaring- all coming together until the point where no single sound was distinguishable from the other. But at twenty three stories above the ground, there was left only a hush, like a gentle ocean wave lapping upon a sandy beach.  
  
Sometimes, if he closed his eyes and really concentrated for a moment, Edward could imagine the smell of salt carried on a gentle breeze, heated by the sun hanging high in a cloudless azure sky. But then there was another sound which could not be ignored. It wasn't like the screaming of seagulls, but rather, it was the opposite.  
  
Rich like chocolate and as smooth as butter left out in a dish, soaking into flushed skin like warm water stagnant in a steamy bath. Listening to the relaxed music from the radio at the corner of the room, and having been laying back in the tub for a quite a while, Ed had begun to experience that sensation. That heaviness you feel when your body is sinking and becoming one with the earth, as it was destined to in the beginning.  
  
With half lidded eyes, Ed's thoughts teetered upon the divide between wake and sleep, without a care in the world as to which way he would eventually fall.  
  
A hand sluggishly crawled over the edge of the large porcelain tub and reached downward. Fingers wrapped around the cool neck of an open bottle of red wine, and Edward took a swig straight out of it before gently replacing the bottle onto the pristine white tile floor.  
  
Licking his lips, Ed then looked across the bathroom lit by the late morning sun just as a man with raven hair turned up the volume on the radio sitting beside the sink, the sound filling the atmosphere and causing it to grow heavy like a cloud before a sun shower, letting it sink into a greater mellowness than it had been in before.  
  
The raven-haired man was wearing a blue bath towel around his waist and absolutely nothing else. His hair was still wet from the shower he had taken earlier, and it stuck out this way and that.  
  
And in this clean, but slightly disheveled state, Roy Mustang did a slow sort of samba around the small room. Onyx eyes were closed, head bobbed as hips slowly swayed, and hands moved in whatever way their owner saw fit.  
  
It was all very... _oddly_ ... natural.  
  
**_You say that you don't like him, but I see you all the time..._ **  
  
Roy mouthed the words to the song as his body moved subtly and smoothly, the sort of way that you dance when you're into it and you have a minute where there's no one else around to watch. A nerdy sort of funk powered by a glass, or four, of cheap wine.  
  
"And you have a problem with that?" Roy suddenly questioned. "The fact that you're sleeping with me?"  
  
Ed narrowed his eyes and let his left arm dip into the warm bathwater. "No, no, it's just... you sleep with your boss and then what?"  
  
"You want my honest opinion, Eddie?"  
  
"Don't call me Eddie..." Ed grumbled, sinking farther down below the water’s surface.  
  
"Well, I personally think that you should do it again, just to keep up tradition," Roy suggested with a small smile. "Or we don't necessarily have to sleep together, we could just sleep next to each other. I'm fine with that too, as long as you invite me over again to do a little bit of overtime later... if ya know what I mean."  
  
Roy let out a soft, pleased chuckle. "Get some work done," he added with a wink as he wove his fingers together.

He rested his palms against the back of his head, and chewing his lower lips with a smirk, his languidly swirled his towel-clad hips around in tune with the music.  
  
Sloshing the water around slightly, Edward sat up in the tub, the expression on his face portraying slight distress.  
  
"Is it too early in the morning for wine?" the blond suddenly asked in a higher and louder voice than intended.  
  
"So you _don't_ want me to stay over again," Roy concluded, calmly and fluidly rocking his toned shoulders from side to side. Ed’s assumption didn't seem to faze him in the least.  
  
"No, I _do_ want you to stay over again," Ed said quickly, "And I'm not just saying that to make you happy- don't get me wrong... I had a great time! It's just that when I ask if it's too early for wine... well, I'm asking if it's too early for wine."  
  
"For hard liquor, yes," Roy responded, lifting his head. Rolling his shoulders back, he slowly danced his way over to Ed. "For wine, anytime after nine in the morning is fair game! Wine. Time. Nine... Hey, it rhymes! It's easy to remember. I suppose it was just meant to be!"  
  
With a soft sigh, Edward leaned back in the tub, his brow furrowed with concentration.  
  
"Look, I... I honestly don't know where we're going," Ed said quietly with eyes lowered, studying the ripples in the water. "But I suppose that's alright for the moment- there's no rush, is there? We have all the time in the world. This is good… right?"  
  
Edward paused and nodded his head. "Yes. Yes, this is good; let's continue and see where it takes us. But… what happens after? I mean, now _is_ after, but after now..."  
  
The blond's body stiffened and he let out a quiet gasp of surprise as Roy’s fingers smoothly slipped beneath his chin and took a gentle hold of it, lifting it ever so slightly heavenward to the tune of the quiet, easygoing music from the radio.  
  
**_You say that you don't like him, but I see you all the time..._ **  
  
Gripping the edge of the tub with his free hand, Roy slowly bent over at the waist, bringing his face close, his dark bangs dripping over his pale forehead.

"Just give it some time..." Roy cooed breathily with India ink eyes searching, "And if things were meant to fall into place... they will. Trust me."  
  
Edward's countenance softened and he took in a shallow intake of breath as he felt a pleasant tingling sensation spread over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.  
  
A blush.  
  
His body relaxed, and tilting his head slightly to the side, he looked over at Roy out of the corners of eyes shaded by heavy eyelids and long lashes.

A satisfaction.

A happiness.

A heat that swells within the chest and then bubbles up in the form of the ever so slight upward curve of parted lips.  
  
" _Look at you._ .." Ed hummed in a low, rounded tone.  
  
"I'm looking..." Roy replied smoothly. His eyes remained trained on Edward's lips as a hint of a smile spread across his own face.  
  
"No, you're looking at me, bastard. You have things to do- paperwork to fill out, remember?"  
  
"Paperwork to fill out, huh?" Roy repeated quietly, letting his towel fall to the floor as he swung one leg up and over and into the tub.  
  
"Paperwork to fill out," Edward stated softly, drawing one leg up to his chest as Roy climbed into the bathtub, carefully seating himself in the warm, soapy water below. "Bad people to catch..."  
  
Straddling Edward, Roy placed a hand upon the younger man's flushed pink cheek.  
  
"Bad people to catch," Roy breathed, taking his other hand off of the edge of the tub and gently placing it upon the cheek opposite. "How cute..."  
  
"People. Remember?" Ed said coolly.  
  
He found himself being guided backward, his upper body slowly being enveloped by a wet, but satisfying, warmth that sent a low hum escaping from his throat.  
  
He felt like he was melting.  
  
Edward propped himself up on his elbows and long loose golden hair dripped upon the surface of the water, swirling and twisting like ink, or perhaps the sun in liquid form. He could hardly believe how much trust he had in the man who was looming over him while he was in such a vulnerable state.  
  
He didn't live in that wonder though. Instead, he basked in their closeness and in Roy's warmth.  
  
Honey colored eyes closed as heated breath caressed slightly parted lips.  
  
"I like people..." Roy hummed, sitting back, calmly bringing hand upward, and weaving his fingers through Edward's hair.  
  
"Oh, shut up..." Ed whispered, his voice tinged with laughter.

When he caught Roy staring, his smile melted. He found himself falling into a sort of wonder at how… at what… that expression, connected to that face, could possibly mean.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Edward slowly sat himself up, water running off of his body as he leaned against the back of the tub, the porcelain cool against his skin like the air which caressed his chest and arms as the music played on. Ed hesitantly reached out and linked his hands behind Roy’s neck slick with perspiration, drawing him closer, breath and the beating of the heart falling into a rhythm like the lazy swirl of towel-clad hips.    
  
"You sometimes… you sometimes get stuck in your own little world in the middle of nowhere,” Roy whispered with eyes cast downward. “That isn't a bad thing- it happens to everyone. You have all those wheels turning…”

Eyes flicked upward. Eyes met. Eyes twinkled. Eyes softened.

“You have all those wheels turning round in your pretty little head,” Roy continued, “Always one step ahead.”

“But… but what do we think we’re doing?” Edward questioned, his voice barely louder than a whisper.  
  
“It’s a sweet simplicity, sweetheart...” Roy breathed with a smile, tilting his head ever slightly to the side. “Some people may disagree, but I have to remind myself that it doesn’t matter where you are, what you’re doing… _who_ you’re doing,” he added, playfully tapping a wet finger to the tip of Ed’s pointed nose. “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing next. Because that’s something that only time and god know. If the answer to the question is no, then go back to the drawing board and fix it. But the question in the first place is...”

Roy suddenly paused. With mouth closed, he drew a hand upward and gently smoothed a lock of damp golden hair behind Edward’s left ear tinged with a flushed and rosy pink. Eyes filled with soft and sleepy fascination wandered and met, just as heated lips wandered and met- you know the answer. The heart pumps it through your veins, it consumes you, and with your stupid spinning head of stupid spinning gears, you can’t help but smile and cry and wonder if it had been present this whole entire time, and if it hadn’t, how have you ever lived without it- what is the name of this feeling? What is the answer, and what should you do about the answer to the second?

 

 

 

“Are you happy?”  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was first published in my RoyEd cop AU by the same name, though it didn't have the same end.  
> There is a 'solution' to the ending, at least, I have my own personal solutions to the questions that were presented, and I was about to write what those answers were at the end... but I want to leave it to your own interpretation. 
> 
> Leave a comment and tell me whatcha thunk!


End file.
